Articles
2011 Artists' Picks
Spotlight 5
Albums
1982
Marvin Ayres
Big Quarters
Birds Of Passage
Brunborg / Huke
bvdub
Charlatan
City of Satellites
Cokiyu
CYNE
Dakota Suite / Sirjacq
Tomoyoshi Date
Dday One
Vladislav Delay
Ensemble Economique
Esperanza
Frost & Bjarnason
Integral
Lullatone
Mario & Vidis
Dean McPhee
Mint Julep
Muhr
James Murray
Muta
Nicholas: Nu Groove
pacificUV
Papir
Andrew Pekler
Pimmon
Simon Scott
Quentin Sirjacq
Stormloop
Swod
szilárd
Tapage
Carl Taylor
Willamette
Boo Williams
Reissue
Pink Floyd
Compilations / Mixes
Marcel Dettmann
Fabriksampler V4
Inertia: Resisting Routine
Tech My House 5
Visionquest
EPs
0311
A Sun-Amissa
Jacksonville
Arev Konn
Neon Cloud
Phasen
Photonz
Rivers Home
Muhr:
Dream Dictionary
Les Enregistrements Variables
Issued under the Muhr alias on Les Enregistrements Variables, Dream Dictionary is the latest work from Montreal-based Vincent Fugère (also the founder of Les Enregistrements Variables). One could very easily imagine the album appearing on Hibernate or Home Normal, so attuned is Muhr's material to the burgeoning ambient-classical-electronic genre associated with such labels. In meditations both becalmed (“The Flood”) and brooding (“The Shadows”), conventional sounds, guitar and piano primarily, merge with electronic treatments in eleven concise settings that lean towards the melancholy end of the spectrum. A sense of foreboding shadows “The Fox Witch,” until, at least, tinkling pianos add light to the gloom-laden murmur of distorted chords, while “The Numbers” is memorable for weaving orchestral elements into an evocation that's as mysterious as it is ethereal. To his credit, Fugère focuses on feeling in these pieces and generally eschews cluttering the tracks with gratuitous sounds. He's quite content, for example, to dress “The Woman” in simple piano chords and treated guitar shadings, and the front-line army lurching heavily through “The Attack” is made up of little more than a distorted guitar line.
A pronounced film soundtrack dimension also permeates Dream Dictionary in its track titles, all of which follow a similar descriptive pattern—“The Fox,” “The Attack,” and “The Woman,” for example. While they're not so transparently titled that a clear-cut narrative is laid out, the titles do at least hint at a possible story-line for those inclined to seek one out. Others might be content to simply let the sounds wash over them for thirty-seven minutes. It's a modest statement overall—Fugère clearly isn't out to re-write the rule-book with the release—but a nonetheless effective one that rewards one's time and attention.
January 2012